Silence
by Solemn Ember
Summary: The title doesn't pertain to the story. It's an OC who visits Ichigo one night. Set after Orihime leaves with Ulqui to Hueco Mundo. Hinted IchiHime.


It'd been three days after Orihime was kidnapped by that bastard Aizen, and the old geezer had so strongly declared her a traitor on a ridiculous notion that she left on her free will. Ichigo ran his fingers through his orange hair, feeling the stress creep up on him again. There was just no freaking way that Orihime would high tail it and leave them like that. No way possible.

He groaned in a fit of rage while he paced in his room. He couldn't understand what that bastard was planning, nor could he grasp why he needed Orihime in the first place. He got that her abilities to heal was remarkable, god-like even, but… Why on earth would he need a healer? During that battle in the Soul Society, he took every one of them down single-handedly, literally. Surely he wouldn't need someone to heal him, especially once he dies.

Ichigo wanted to shout in frustration, but settled for punching his pillow with a loud grunt. No need to worry his sisters who were probably asleep by now. Maybe he should turn in as well, but his mind wouldn't allow that.

"I should at least turn off the lights." He murmured, already switching the lights off and letting the moonlight seep into his room.

Instead of lying on the bed, he chose to sit at his desk and let his mind wander back to before all of this happened. Where he wasn't a substitute soul reaper, they weren't in the middle of a war, and he… and he wouldn't be in constant war with his second-half.

"You know, if you keep frowning like that, you're gonna get worry lines." A soft voice whispered in the silent room. Ichigo stood up abruptly, his eyes trained on the average looking girl crouching at his open window. Honestly, what was it with that damn window that attracted most of these people?

"Who are you?" He snarled, already preparing for a fight.

"Chill dude, don't go throwing a bitch fit. I'm not here to fight." She stepped onto his mattress and sat down, legs crossed Indian style.

"That doesn't tell me why you're here." He growled. She sighed and leaned forward so that her elbow rested on her knee and her chin propped on her open palm.

"I'm just here to chat with you. That's pretty much all." Ichigo narrowed his eyes, not buying it, but she made no move to show that she was preparing to attack him.

"Why?"

"Because I can, that's why." That puzzled the strawberry named soul reaper. He still held the seal that would separate his body and soul in his hand, just in case, and sat down on the chair once again.

"Alright then, what do you want?" His eyes narrowed at her with a deep scowl.

She remained silent for a while. Her deep ocean-blue eyes roamed around, taking in his small room, he guessed, before resting on the small lamp on his desk. He felt irritated, but if he wanted to know more, he'd have to be patient. Plus, he was curious who she was.

She seemed harmless enough, what with her black jeans, grape colored converse, black socks, from what the shoe allowed to show, and plain dim gray sweat-jacket. What caught his eye were the neon orange headphones around her neck. A bright orange wire hung down her torso and disappearing into one of her pockets to what he assumed she had it plugged into something.

"I wanna shed some light on what happened with Orihime." His body went taut upon the mention of Orihime's name. A wave of anger washed over him, making him see red.

"What the hell happened to her?" He shouted. "I swear she better not be hurt or els-"

He was cut off by a warm hand covering his mouth. Brown clashed with blue, one swirling with rage and the other calming with minor sympathy.

"Shut up, will you? You don't want to wake up your sisters, nor do you want to alert your dad who's down stairs?" Ichigo narrowed his eyes, but she gave him a thin half-smile in return.

"That's better. Now, when I say just hear me out, I mean just hear me out." She removed her hand and sat back to the position she was before.

"Alright, I hate to break it to you, but yeah, the bums running the soul society are right. She did, in some way, leave of her own free will. One of our own, you probably already met him anyway, came by to pick her up the other day. Now before you start throwing a bitch fit and began shouting how she would never do something like that, just remain hearing me out. You got that?" She gave him a look, waiting for him to agree.

His teeth were already grinding against each other, and it was hard to keep from just lashing out at her, but he silently nodded. He needed to hear more, after all.

"Great. Now then, it wasn't like she had much of a choice, because to be honest, she kind of didn't. Aizen would've wanted her anyway, either of her free will or by force. Now she was given that option, either go by free will, or go by force. She went by free will, that way she could say goodbye to everyone, which was why you were healed, right?"

"So, yeah, she went on her own to Hueco Mundo. But from what I saw, like when I met her, she looked like she had some sort of agenda when she was around. Then that's when I was informed about the war between the Arrancar's and the Soul Society. My theory, like I said, just a theory, is that she might be trying to stall the war so you guys could, hell I don't know, get ready for the fight for your lives or something. Looks to me like she's trying to be the martyr."

Ichigo tried to absorb the information in, but as he tried to link up all the pieces, there was one piece that he just couldn't grasp.

"Why are you telling me this?" He long forgot the seal, too shocked to keep a hold on the damn thing, and just stared at her. Her solemn gaze, coupled with her half-smile struck a chord within him.

"Like I said, just because I can." She stretched her muscles, yawning as she did, and moved to stretch along his bed, her legs crossed and arms behind her head.

"That… that doesn't tell me anything."

"Obviously." She sighed, turned to her side to peer at him behind the few strands of her crow shimmered hair.

Ichigo looked at her, but he wasn't really looking at her. He was still trying to grasp the information she was so kind enough to give him. Orhime left on her own free will, but at the same time she was also technically kidnapped. It didn't sit well with him, to know that she was trying to play martyr, but he wanted to know why Aizen wanted her in the first place.

"Why did Aizen want her?" He finally spoke.

"Sorry, I'm useless under that particular topic." He scowled at that, but it wasn't like he could force her to tell him.

A few moments of silence swarmed around them. Ichigo, who no longer wanted to dwell on the depressing topic, now just wanted to… well, talk. Just talk, like normal people. Even if one was a substitute shinigami and the other, well the enemy.

"Who are you?"

She hummed in response, moving one headphone behind her ear. He repeated the question with mild irritation.

"Oh. Well my name is Kyoto, and obviously I'm an arrancar." He frowned at that, looking her over. She didn't look like an arrancar, hell he actually couldn't feel much of a spiritual presence from her.

"Judging by your face, you don't believe me. Listen, I'm not all top dog Espada, just one of those underlings, but I'm not stupid. This is a gigai. I'm pretty sure you heard of it from your soul reaper buddies. And, in case you're wondering how I managed to get here, I'm either too weak to be sensed, or I'm smart enough to actually hide my reiatsu."

Ichigo nodded, getting that it would be pretty smart to simply hide from the soul reapers lurking here, 'specially since they aren't really taking it easy on an arrancar, or any hollows, whether she was a major threat or not.

"Wait, I thought only Soul Reapers could use it?" She shrugged her shoulders at that.

"I don't know, nor do I care. And even if I do get stuck being "human" forever, it wouldn't matter to me one bit. This body can withstand the strain, not that I'm out there murdering people or saving lives, and even if I do die, so what? Death is inevitable, no matter how much you try to deny it." The way she said it, totally nonchalant and detached, made him frown at that.

"You can't be serious?" She cocked an eyebrow at that.

"Why can't I?" That shut him up effectively. He pondered her question but couldn't grasp what she meant. She gave him an answer, a simple one at that, with far too many questions and very few answers.

"It's just… why would you want to die?" Ichigo leaned back into the chair, his arms crossing over his chest. He watched her, waited for her to answer.

She just looked at him, stared at him. He began to feel uncomfortable under her gaze. It felt like she was looking right through him, not exactly at him. He had nothing to hide, from what he guessed, so what was with that damn gaze?

"I dunno." He blinked, jaw dropping at her answer. Here he was, expecting a sob story or something, and she just ended it with a stupid response like that? What the hell?

"Wha-" She cut him off before he could ask.

"Come to bed." Once again, the woman managed to shock him into silence, especially with the serious tone behind the words.

He shook his head, unsure if he was hearing things or not. Was she serious? Sure enough, he rubbed his eyes to be extra sure, there she was, patting the empty spot in front of her like she would a pet that was reluctant to jump on.

"Um…" He rubbed the back of his head, not entirely comfortable with the idea. He had never slept with a girl, much less the enemy, in the same bed that wasn't his mother or his siblings.

"Just do it." He sensed the impatience in her voice, but instead of fighting her, like he originally planned, his body was already moving to lie beside her. Stupid body.

She motioned for him to turn, so that his back was facing her, and he still did what she asked. Seriously, what the hell was with him tonight?

He froze when she draped her arm over his stomach, her cheek pressing against the curve of his neck, headphones now resting on the pillow around their heads. He could hear the soft beats of some techno-like song and even softer lyrics of a woman singing a chorus. Her leg moved between his, making him highly uncomfortable, but he didn't blush, he never blushed, he simply scowled.

"Shhh." She whispered. Her other hand wormed its way under his body so that it popped up from the other side. The arm was being crushed by his weight. He wanted to move, but she kept him still. Her hand roamed to find, from what he guessed, her music device and raised the volume a couple notches so that he could fully hear the oddly soothing music that floated through the neon colored headphones.

"Just go to sleep. I'm pretty sure you hadn't had a good night's rest in a long time, judging by the bags under your eyes." She murmured, her arm that had moved to find her mp3 had returned back to its place.

"I-" She pressed her lips to the exposed skin of his neck, shutting him up effectively. The back of his neck burned from the contact, his mind reeling with emotions he had no idea where they came from.

"Just let the music soothe you. I know you're worried about Orihime, but so long as she remains useful, Aizen won't let any harm come to her. Besides, you'd be useless to her if you're constantly stressing yourself." She whispered.

Ichigo scowled at that, but he wasn't ignorant to the logic behind it. He doubted Aizen would go through the trouble to kidnap Orihime just to kill or harm her. And… though he didn't like it, she was right. He wouldn't be much use if he didn't rest properly.

He closed his eyes, placed his arm under his head, and let his mind and body relax to the music. He could feel the soft warm puffs of her breath fan across his neck, along with the gentle movement of her chest rising and falling. It soothed him, and finally, he was able to rest without a guilty veil looming over his conscious.

"Thanks." He whispered, falling into a deep sleep.

When she was sure that he was asleep, Kyoto smiled wistfully against his skin.

"Sweet dreams, strawberry."


End file.
